Negative self image is not just a cognitive or emotional issue. The physical aspects of negative self image are just starting to be recognized, but not enough, in my opinion! Nothing could be more important since it’s impossible to “get out of your body”.

You can use your body to tap into confidence instantly. Use your body, with all of it’s senses, to pay attention to your environment instead of yourself. It does help if you are on the beach! But it works even when you are not. You are instantly “allowed to take up space” that you may have been depriving yourself of.

This external focusing of attention has an interesting side effect that I’m beginning to understand better: it quiets down physicalized self-judging thoughts. The hidden part of your mind that is always trying so hard to manage your body. The minute I first bring a person’s attention to their body, I can see the tightening and confusion on a physical level.

These are the kinds of things people say when I ask them why they have come to study with me:

“My belly sticks out so I’m sucking it in.”

“I have terrible posture.”

“My back is really rounded, so I’m trying to lift it up, but I can’t breath when I do that.”

The more physical skill a person has in any particular field, these kinds of thoughts get more complex and multi-layered, and the confidence killing nature of them gets masked behind that skill. Often these things are why people come to study with me – because they are confused, anxious, and not feeling confident that they are on the right track.

Normally no one would say that they don’t have confidence in their body, but it’s implied that somehow, their body is not quite right, not as it should be. That it needs improvement. And most movement practice starts from this assumption! So the very thing that we need the most – movement – fills our nervous system with even more self-critical energy.

I think that people open up when they are allowed to move. This opening, or expansiveness, is the hallmark of confidence.

Unfortunately, most folks are unknowingly stiffening somewhere, for whatever reason. It could be conscious or unconscious. Yet, the exact moment that stiffening is perceived, I see over and over again that the person already knows how to ease up on themselves, and that in that exact moment movement occurs.

In that moment, the movement that arises is easy, confident, and freeing. The only problem is, this kind of movement can feel a bit unfamiliar, and it doesn’t match what you’ve been told you should be doing with your posture.

Without skilled guidance, you are likely to shut it down. You might experience negative self judging kind of thoughts like – “OMG my belly is sticking out” or “my shoulders are totally hunching forward now!” Even thought the movement feels good, it doesn’t match the self-image you have acquired.

Some people even feel that they are going to fall down without the familiar posture. And all of this might be happening so fast inside you that you don’t even recognize it. In my classes and lessons, you will receive skilled guidance. I will structure a space where these thoughts, and your internal physical response to them, simply are not happening. Together we create a space where you are free, yet supported, to take calculated risks in movement.

Once you have experienced this peaceful and dynamic state of being, I know you will be able to learn how to do it for yourself.

The Alexander Technique practice of awareness without judgement can be pretty radical, if this is where you come from. Honestly, I think hidden negative physicalized self-talk plays a huge role in the loss of confidence in ourselves, which then gets overly pathologized.

Then we diagnosis: I need to improve my confidence! and we start doing a million things to address that without ever getting down to the most basic level: how we experience and relate to our bodies.

Some suggestions I found on the inter-webs this morning for how to deal with negative self image and “lack of confidence”:

– fake it (basically pretend you don’t feel the way you feel)

– get off social media (implying that you should simply ignore the culture in which you live that tells you your body is ugly for whatever reason, including all the systems of oppression that consider your existence problematic like racism, agism, fat hating, fear of ability differences etc)

– talk about your butt positively, as if you liked it (I kind of like this one!)

– say affirmations in the mirror

– volunteer for a charity so you will feel good about yourself

– pretend you feel confident by smiling, sitting up straight, and looking people in the eye

None of which are going to address the root problem! Last, but not least…whew:

– Exercise/move

Well, yes. Move! But it’s your attitude towards your movement that is doing to heal you.

You can change how you move yourself. That will change everything else.

VIDEO: FREEING THE MOBILIGNMENT™ POINTS BETWEEN HEAD AND ARMS

We brace our head and arms against each other in almost every gesture we make, like brushing our teeth, striking the keys on our computer, tying our shoes. If you don’t believe me, try doing one of those things now and see what you find out.

Because our neck and shoulders are basically all of the territory between head and arms, that’s where the bracing is happening, and that’s where we get tight. Even if we have some idea of the anatomy involved, when we do pay “attention” to it, it just tends to make the tension worse. It’s a horrible cycle really. It should be called At-tension!!!!

Mobilignment™ refreshes your innate ability to pay attention to yourself with ease. It’s based on my work as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, and influenced by my many years ofexperience as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher.

It’s amazing to me that many people go through 75% of their day not really paying attention to themselves at all – because they can! Our movement system carries us down the street and around the corner, up and down stairs, preventing us from running into to each other or getting run over by a car, horse, or bus, even if we are looking at our cell phone the whole time.

If this is you…please don’t jump to a negative judgement of yourself too quickly. It’s actually good news! If your movement system can take such good care of you even when you aren’t paying “at-tension,” surely there must be greater heights it can carry you to.

Mobilignment™ is a system for investigating movement that makes the best use of this intelligence. It uses spatial attention (where we are in space as a whole, and where one part of us is in relation to another) – and kinesthesia – the sense of movement internally and in space.

In my view, our neck and shoulders include all the territory between:
1) our head
and
2) our arms.

How can you make a change in the bracing between them?

It’s much easier for me to show you than to write about it. Watch the 7 minute video above to free the relationship between Mobilignment™ points for your skull and your lower arm. It feels so good, and your neck and shoulders will have no choice but to come along for the ride.

This is one example of the kind of investigations we make in Mobilignment classes. I believe that through returning to an open minded investigation of movement – larger, more basic movements like walking, running, rolling, and just moving for the pleasure of it – your movement system will return to sanity in all the small things of life, the more refined movements like those done in a yoga class, in your kitchen, at your desk.

If you are hungry for more, you can

1) Attend the worldwide class online or the live class in NYC. Classes are once a month, online the last Sunday of every month 11 – 12:30 EST; or live in NYC on the first Saturday of every month from 3 – 5 pm, and you can register here on the workshops page for the next class.

2) Go here to view more videos on Mobilignment™.

3) Try a private lesson.

Enjoy!

I’m feeling humbled today. I was going to write an article about my dermatome mapping process for publication in the American Society for the Alexander Technique Journal.

I’m going to miss my deadline. It’s too important to rush. Though I know the practice really works, that people gain ease and more coordination, I don’t know enough about why yet.

I do know that our body schema – our self image – is profoundly affected by both movement and touch. What I don’t know is how well the dermatome mapping process really reflects the actual structure of our CNS, or why learning this approximate map (because there is no one “accurate” dermatome map) through touch is effective in improving coordination.

I learned something on a non-cognitive level this weekend from all of my somatic colleagues, though. Something about not rushing, not pushing.

If you are interested in ease and fluidity, you are talking about waves. You can’t push a wave! Sound waves, light waves, the movement of fluid inside your body which is 60% water.

All that water, however, is contained within a structure that’s guided by your central nervous system, which is “controlled” by your brain. You are in constant dialogue with water. When water can’t flow, your tissues will feel the stress and strain.

And that will start calling your attention.

The more you pay attention to the strain, the more you will feel strain. It’s a nasty loop. But that’s what your brain is designed to do, so that you will pay attention to problems within the body, take care of them, and survive. Please forgive it! It’s just waiting for you use one of it’s hidden assets more skillfully: paying attention.

If you pay attention to ease, you will still feel discomfort, but you will have a larger, more fluid frame for your experience. That larger frame is much more supportive and calming to your CNS. It just requires a conscious choice on your part.

It takes patience and a slowly built stamina to make conscious choices about attention and movement. We know now that over-training can screw up your coordination big time. It’s called “maladaptive plasticity.”

Learning conscious choice is a delicate, fluid process. It requires a good, quiet, clear, supported space in which to practice and learn at a workable, fluid pace. That’s what I’m teaching in my classes, workshops and online gatherings.

Yes you can learn to guide your fluid self with clarity out into the world, into life-affirming movement. You just can’t push it!

I’ll be restructuring my Tuesday evening Movement Lab to focus more on the needs of dancers and movement educators (including Alexander Teachers!) who wish to explore developmental movement form (via the Dart Procedures) with ease! Without structure and form, it’s not possible to move.

For now, the Lab will stay open to any topics at all – through the end of December. So come on over if you’ve been wanting to give it a try!

Lots of love,

Clare

More Ways to Study:
1) FREE!
My video channel (the videos will give you background on the anatomy of the central nervous system, from which I’ve developed Kinesthetic Thinking.)

2) $14 per class:
Open Group Class every Wednesday 2 – 4 at Movement Research, through December 20 (No class Thanksgiving week).

2) $25 per class:
The NYC Tuesday evening Movement Lab

3) $110 per hour
can be split with a friend!
Private Study: go here for information